Email Hardening Workshop
RCCE students will learn email security architecture including SMTP protocol security, email authentication mechanisms (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), email gateway configuration, anti-phishing controls, attachment sandboxing, URL rewriting, and email encryption. RCCE students will learn to analyze email headers for spoofing indicators, configure email security controls to prevent business email compromise, investigate email-based attacks, implement data loss prevention for outbound email, deploy email encryption for sensitive communications, and tune email security rules to balance protection with business communication needs. This hands-on hardening course focuses on reducing attack surface through practical configuration changes and security guardrails. Building on core knowledge, RCCE students will learn to apply hardening baselines, validate configurations, and measure the security improvement achieved. Students walk away with actionable hardening checklists and the skills to maintain hardened configurations as environments evolve.
- Security Engineers building defensive controls
- Security Analysts and Blue Team members
- Systems Administrators with security responsibilities
- GRC and Risk Professionals supporting controls
- Professionals implementing Email Hardening Workshop
- Execute hands-on tasks for email hardening workshop
- Execute hands-on tasks for reducing email attack surface through practical configuration
- Execute hands-on tasks for workshop objectives
- Design a scalable privilege management architecture with policy and enforcement, including email security layers end-to-end.
- Execute hands-on tasks for authentication mechanisms — covering Deploy SPF, DKIM, and DMARC together.
- Execute hands-on tasks for gateway & anti-phishing controls — covering mail gateways for inbound filtering.
- Execute hands-on tasks for investigation & dlp — covering Analyze email headers for spoofing indicators.
- Explain Email Security Architecture Overview fundamentals
- Execute hands-on tasks for defense layers — covering Perimeter: DNS authentication (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), No single control stops all email threats.
- Execute hands-on tasks for key principle: defense in depth — covering No single control stops all email threats.
- Execute hands-on tasks for security-critical headers — covering EHLO/HELO: client identifies itself, Return-Path: envelope sender.
- Design a scalable privilege management architecture with policy and enforcement, including No built-in sender authentication.
| Module 01 | Email Hardening Workshop |
| Module 02 | Reducing Email Attack Surface Through Practical Configuration |
| Module 03 | Workshop Objectives |
| Module 04 | Architecture & Protocol Security |
| Module 05 | Authentication Mechanisms |
| Module 06 | Gateway & Anti-Phishing Controls |
| Module 07 | Investigation & DLP |
| Module 08 | Email Security Architecture Overview |
| Module 09 | Defense Layers |
| Module 10 | Key Principle: Defense in Depth |
| Module 11 | Security-Critical Headers |
| Module 12 | SMTP Weaknesses (by design) |
| Module 13 | MTA-STS (RFC 8461) |
| Module 14 | TLS-RPT (RFC 8460) |
All hands-on labs run on Rocheston Rose X OS. Students practice email hardening workshop by implementing the controls discussed in class, with a focus on real-world deployment, monitoring, and validation.
- Lab 1: Execute hands-on tasks for email hardening workshop
- Lab 2: Execute hands-on tasks for reducing email attack surface through practical configuration
- Lab 3: Execute hands-on tasks for workshop objectives
- Lab 4: Design a scalable privilege management architecture with policy and enforcement
- Lab 5: Execute hands-on tasks for authentication mechanisms
Upon successful completion of this course, students will receive an official RCCE Course Completion Certificate for Email Hardening Workshop, verifiable through the Rocheston certification portal.
- Full access to all course materials and slide decks
- Hands-on lab access on Rocheston Rose X OS environment
- Access to Rocheston CyberNotes
- Access to Rocheston Zelfire — EDR/XDR SIEM platform
- Access to Rocheston Raven — online cyber range exercise platform
- Access to Rocheston Vulnerability Vines AI